run for it [kat]

getting through the past few nights wasn't easy. Ray wasn't happy with how things had turned out for the past few days, and she didn't think anyone was. it was nearly impossible to think all of this was real. she felt well prepared for anything at this point. the past few nights she had spent...pretty much alone, but not really. She had come to join Seth on this night just to settle him. or maybe she wanted to. he was one of the few people she could tolerate...barely though. it was nice to know he had continued to survive this event.

covered head to toe in almost the same clothes for days, she still didn't care for the heat. her knife strapped securly to her leg and a quiver and bow hung over her shoulder. she had everything she needed in her bag, but sadly that only consisted of new pairs of socks, underwear and gronola bars and ambrosia. the necessities. sadly that didn't include pants, shirts, or arrows for that matter. she learned to deal with it though. she knew she had everything under control: in her bag, or on her body, she was ready.

the only thing ray had forgotten was to tie up her hair.

ray ran behind seth, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, which he probably wasn't. his eyes were set on the Camp Store. she watched him trip and that concluded she was right with his awareness. the doors had already been closed but Seth banged them enough for people to open them from the inside. she didn't blame them. Seth was good at getting what he wanted just because he pestered so much.

Seth obnoxiously called Ray's name, rather loudly, the second they got in. She was right behind him. Ray quickly put both hands on his shoulders, spun him around and said, "right behind you Sunny Boy. calm down, we're in a safe place." she sighed and looked around the crowded shop. great, she thought, more people.
clicky

ray sort of appreciated seth taking her off to the side, away from most of the campers. all  the windows were boarded up probably four times over, and all the furniture up against any possible way of getting inside. ray shrugged her backpack on her shoulder, feeling a bit uneasy, but soon shrugged the feeling off. along with Seth, she set down her backpack and contemplated taking off her jacket, but settled with unzipping it. might as well get comfortable, but not too comfortable. hopefully this hideout wouldn't be hit too hard tonight. things weren't looking so good though.

ray uttered a mutual hate towards the situation with Seth. leaning against the wall she looked over the room one more time. there were numerous younger campers in here, count of maybe five out of the thirty campers that were in there. she looked at her watch and thought of how it was going to be another long night. she decided to put down her quiver and count her arrows. she had used quite a few but she was sure to try and scavenge up a few by tomorrow...if she made it til then.

maybe fifteen minutes had passed since the sun had officially gone down and there was already pounding on the doors. unpleasant noises sounded outside and ray made a point of backing away from the walls. but that wasn't all she heard. it came with cries. live cries from a person, a girl, right outside. apparently Seth knew her, because he freaked.

everything happened so quickly, ray barely processed. she watched from their space on the wall before interfering. he was screaming at some of the boys at the door, and they were yelling right back. ray didn't want to watch because she almost knew what would happen and she didn't like it. she really didn't care about anyone else in here, but maybe seth, and that was a problem at the moment. the second he grabbed a boy, she intervened.

Ray grabbed seth roughly by the shoulders and flung him away from the boy. "Seth!" she hissed, "you need to pull yourself together, there is nothing they can do! we're not going to kill each other in here!" ray now hated the fact that she was caring, because she knew there was no way anyone was getting in or out of this place unless the dead tore the store down brick by brick.

ray could barely stand being in that building. she should have just kept to herself again that night, maybe hide out in the shed, she didn't care if she ran into nikki again. she was tolerable in that state of things and right now, she wished to be anywhere but the crowded and terribly held camp store.

the store now held an ere veil of silence, other than the faint sobs coming from Seth on the floor. it was agonizing to her. ray wasn't good in these sorts of situations. looking around she could tell everyone was worked up by this, who wouldn't be? ray definitly didn't look it but some people show their grief and sorrow for other people in different ways. and ray's reaction was to speak up, first clearly, and take charge, because the things outside weren't stopping with the girl.

"those things will be at us all night now that they know there are people in here," ray started at the campers by the door. "everyone in this room needs to take up station by every entrance. there needs to be more blockade on that door. this place needs to be sealed tight, and better than it already is. not a bit of night air is getting into this place. we'll need everyone to hold this place--"

"why are we taking orders from you now?" the boy who had been holding seth spoke up. ray tensed and turned to him. her eyes were fierce with annoyance towards this boy and absolute anger. ray wasn't popular around camp, but people basically knew not to mess with her. questioning her was just as bad, for she almost never lost arguments. they were one of her strong suits.

"because we're not just going to stand around here and wait for out turn to come. you just let a girl die, and her blood is on your hands, all of our hands. there was nothing any of us could do, opening those doors would have been suicide, but we're losing people by the minute out there, and you damn well know that they're people we all know. now you get this done, or so help me gods, I will tear you limb from limb, and we both know that wouldn't help the problem at hand." she glared down the large boy in front of her and they basically had this stare down and ray must have won. the boy started directing people to the stationed places she had originally ordered. they would use whatever they had in the store as supplies. ray would join the defensive outlook in a moment.

awkwardly, ray turned around, her eyes trailing to the boy on the ground. he was broken, already she could tell that he was gone and never coming back the same; at least he wasn't coming back for certain things. these were the actual situations ray was terrible with. if it had been any other person in any other situation she would have left him there to pull himself together, but it was Seth. this was insane, though. she shouldn't bother, but maybe her sort of comfort was what he needed. she might as well try.

she propped Seth up his back to wall. might as well let him breath better. curling up in a ball blocked curved air ways and...well she let those thoughts go and focused on him. her hands were on his shoulders as she knelt down next to him. I shouldn't have done this what am I doing? It was funny. when it came to combat she was great with words and able to get things our clearly and without trouble. this was so different. the first words that came out of her mouth weren't the best to some people, but coming from her, it was the best comfort one could get. "do you want a gronola bar?"

she half expected Seth to freak out at her.

everytime they lost someone the dead would gain one and ray hoped that someone else would get rid of the now dead girl that Seth knew before he ever saw a zombie again. they didn't need him to choke by seeing a zombie of someone he knew, let alone the girl he could do nothing for. kneeling in front of seth she worried this and it surprised her how worried she was. she almost felt disgusted by it, but it was real, and she needed to be there with seth, at least for a moment longer. she couldn't stand him like this; she could barely stand him in general.

Ray didn't even flinch when he punched the wall. some people had stopped what they were doing. Gods, damn it Seth, she though, you want to make it easier for them to get in here? At this point in time she was better at keeping her emotions inside instead of carelessly blurting them out. The silence in the room was so thick you could cut through it with a knife. Ray wanted to yell at everyone to get back to what they were doing, but she decided against it.

"You can't beat yourself up over this," she assured him. But that was all she had left. she couldn't bring herself to say any more. What could she say? these were the exact reasons she hated getting close to people. in the life a demigod had to live, how would getting close to people and developing feelings for people help anyone? just looking at seth she remembered that she never wanted to feel like this. It was dangerous for herself to know people and she was risking it with knowing him.

sighing and looking away from the boy in front of her she reached to her bag, finally withholding her firm grip on his shoulders. She dug out a string of bandages and took Seth's good hand. with hers, she forced the bandage into his hand and then closed his fingers around it. all the while doing this while at least trying to look him in the high. she let go of his hand almost and made sure not to linger at all. Now, ray stood up and checked the window right next to them, the one no one was near, and checked for its seal. she only hoped everyone else would continue to do the same and not continue to stare at Seth.

Now, ray was thinking of things to say to him that might get his mind off things, but what do you say to a boy who just lost a close friend?

ray had decided to stop trying to get her mind away from things and just lean against the wall, facing Seth. She rolled her eyes at Seth's attempt to warn her of being safer and steering clear of the windows. she didn't put much into it though, just trying to keep him happy for now. whatever he wanted, she thought. there wasn't anything she was really afraid of anyway. plus, there were a couple layers of board against these windows, it would take a little bit for the dead to get inside.

as silent as the room was, Seth and Ray must have decided to break that. crossing her arms awkwardly she watched as Seth bandaged his up. watching him she realized that he must've been fighting so hard right then and she wasn't making it any easier. as everyone was attempting to keep everything in line, hopefully keeping everyone safe, the two of them were basically in a corner. ray wondered if she should leave.

"I wont if you don't want me to." It was all she said and she believed it was all she needed to say. thinking about it she realized she never really said that to anyone before. she never really puts other people's emotions before her own. it was weird, and she didn't know how she felt about it. ray almost gagged. with all this touchy feely kind of stuff she was dealing with, she didn't know how she was going to last the night.

ooc: sorry for the terribly sucky post D:

ray actually managed a smile for Seth at his response. She understood him at that point, but she really had no intentions of sitting here all night without really doing anything. As everyone stood silent, either working, or even some preparing for rest, Seth and Ray were in the corner and Ray still wasn't totally crazy about that. She wanted to be killing some things that were killing her...well...you could say friends, even though she really didn't know most people well. Either way, she was still pissed off at whoever helped bring this onto her camp.

So she pushed herself off the wall and picked up her quiver and bow and slung them both around her back. She wasn't going to sit around, but she wasn't leaving Seth alone either. It wasn't going to work that way for her, she swore it. So she turned back to Seth and put out her hand, hoping he would take it, so they could go up to the roof together and maybe help the camp out and kill a few dead.

Suddenly there were screams coming from above them. horrific yells and cries for help and backup. Were there too many? What was going on? the younger children were looking horrified, but they held their weapons in their hands, looking almost eager, but too afraid to advance. Now Ray was totally sure that she was heading up there. With or without Seth, but she was sure he was going to come with her. Ray raised her eyebrows at Seth, as if asking a question to him, hoping she knew his answer.

ray's heart beat fast and it felt as if someone had suddenly injected adrenaline through her veins. she suppressed a smile, for that wasn't going to be very appropriate in this situation. She was excited for a little action she hadn't had as much as she would have preferred the last few days. Some may think she was a little insane to be excited for battle, but she loved the rush and risk of death it gave her. She was prepared, and confident enough in herself to not get killed.

The second she broke the roof two arrows we notched in her bow and immediately fired at the attackers. The door now sealed, Seth, Ray, two boys who had been guarding the door and a girl who looked maybe eleven were on the roof now. All fighting fiercely. The dead were coming at almost every angle possible. She could tell they were hacking at the windows and doors on the ground, but even more were piling up onto the roof. the store was so old, she wondered why the ceiling wasn't caving in with so much weight of people and zombies. not that they weighed much. bones and flabby skin probably weighs close to nothing. Or the Hephaestus kids were just amazing at building the buildings throughout camp.

Kicking a zombie off the roof only seconds after she drove her knife through its skull twice, ray realized already running low on arrows and would have to result to consistent close contact battle. She wasn't too thrilled about this, it wasn't like she wanted zombie guts and grime covering her. She continued to use both arrow and knife though.

A zombie was approaching an unknowing Seth and ducking underneath another walking dead, Ray pulled out her last arrow and shot. Her mother must've been blessing her at this point because the arrow drove itself through one part of the zombie's head and out the other. A smile playing across her lips, ray now had her back almost right against Seth's.

"My last arrow just saved your ass," Ray grumbled with a smirk across her lips. "A thanks seems to be in order." and with that she stabbed and kicked and elbowed anything that came at her. Ray stayed with her back to Seth, almost directly behind him. Seemingly, they had each others' backs.